Firefox plug-in warns users of NSA surveillance

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day? The government is likely logging even the most mundane day-to-day computer habits of millions of Americans, but there’s a way to stand up against surveillance while also rocking out.

According to leaked NSA documents published by The Guardian last
week, the United States National Security Agency is conducting
dragnet surveillance of the communications of Americans,
regularly receiving phone records for millions of Verizon
customers while also being capable of accessing the conversations
that occur over Facebook, Google and several other major Internet
names through a program called PRISM. Now a 28-year-old artist
and developer from Brooklyn, New York has found a fun way of
warning computer users about potential government surveillance,
and he’s incorporated one of the best-selling rock albums ever in
the process.

Justin Blinder released a plugin for the Web browser Firefox this
week, and he’s already seeing a positive response in the press if
not just based off of the idea alone. His “The Dark Side of the
Prism” browser extension alerts Web surfers of possible
surveillance by starting up a different song from Pink Floyd’s
1973 classic “The Dark Side of the Moon” each time a questionable
site is crossed.

Blinder told the Guardian that he built the program over the
course of four hours with the hopes he could "create some sort
of ambient notification that you are on a site that is being
surveiled by the NSA."

"I was really interested in the fact that, although the PRISM
leaks were a shock to many of us, we pretty much already kind of
know we're being surveiled a lot of the time and giving away so
much data," he said.

Upon news of the phone tracking program, even members of Congress
said they couldn’t get over how much information was being shared
between the telecoms and the government. Walking out of a
briefing this Wednesday, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-California)
said, "What we learned in there is significantly more than
what is out in the media today,” and described her reaction
as “astounded.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) said the
program “represents an outrageous abuse of power and a
violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution,” and
the American Civil Liberties Union has sued the government with a
similar complaint filed in federal court.

Separate from leaking a document about the NSA’s access to phone
records, former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden also gave
The Guardian evidence of Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL
and others sharing private communications of customers with the
government. When “The Dark Side of the Prism” is installed, users
of those sites will be reminded with one of the most iconic
albums of the twentieth century.

"I just Googled 'Prism' and the cover came up," Blinder
said. It just so happened that the long-time best-seller also
fits the mood for exactly what the programmer was looking for.

"I didn’t want it to be too jarring because a lot of us seem
to be giving in to being surveiled on a daily basis. I feel like
people already know that. I didn't want it to be alarming,”
he said.

“The Dark Side of the Moon” was Pink Floyd’s eighth studio album
and most commercially successfully, selling roughly 50 million
copies and landing on the Billboard charts for 741 consecutive
weeks. Surveillance, on the other hand, isn’t quite as popular:
according to a Post/Washington Post poll released this week, 52
percent of Americans oppose the PRISM program.

With regards to Snowden, the American public is largely polarized
on the issue. He’s been labeled as both a traitor and
whistleblower and is currently the target of a Department of
Justice investigation.

“He’s not a whistleblower, by the way, because a whistleblower
actually wants the rule of law to be enforced,” Jeremy Bash,
the former chief of staff for then-CIA Director Leon Panetta,
told Politics Confidential this week. “He copied documents and
he made a run for it. He may be actually aiding our enemies.”

On his part, Snowden said he leaked the documents because, “I
can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy
privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around
the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly
building.”

Earlier this year, Pink Floyd lyricist Roger Waters lent his
support to Army Private first class Bradley Manning, who is
currently on trial for the largest intelligence leak in US
history.

“We need more whistl blowers,” Waters wrote in a
statement. “Blowing the whistle on our behalf is not just
brave, it is heroic and it is our duty.”